Hello everyone, it is great to see a place like this! I have been a vegetarian for 5 years, vegan for 1. I was diagnosed with IBS and found out that half of the foods I ate were making my condition worse. I fell off the vegan bandwagon, but I still mostly eat that way.

I am a certified fitness trainer, I love working out and eating right. It is so great to be here!

I am struggling to find a way to eat that does not aggravate my condition and is still kind and gentle to the animal kingdom. My ultimate goal is to control my IBS through eating and to be a vegan for life!

Hello veggiechik, welcome. For good information on how a vegan diet can help a whole bunch of different conditions, I love to point people to this page: http://www.drmcdougall.com/science/implications.html. It touches on almost everything, including IBS. Probably stuff you already know, but still good to read through.

My wife and I have just started teaching a course which focuses on using a vegan diet to cure health issues. Sometimes the process of figuring out a health issue can involve quite a bit of sleuth work, but it's well worth it in the end. I was able to cure my eczema problems I had by moving to a vegan diet, as well as fine tuning my food preferences and our family's use of houshold products (detergents, etc.).

I hope you get it figured out! If you need any assistance with this process, please ask, I love to help people work through this kind of stuff.

brendan wrote:Hey, welcome to the board. I look forward to hearing some of your professional insight on fitness.

By the way, congratulations on getting certified, Kollison! I was reading some of your other posts and thought, "Damn, how does this guy know so much about bodybuilding and fitness?"

Thanks for the kind words mate! Ya I just finished it up with my test, CPR certification, and sent it in. So now there are too CFT (certified fitness trainers) on this board But its just a certificate, what you know is better. Yall have really good knowledge on Veganism, and Im surprised none of you are CFTs.

You asked me for info, I gave it to you in spades. Now your complaining?

I invest lots of time on this board with long posts full of information and insight because I care about people and animals.

Natalie: I hope you realize I'm teasing you?

Seriously, veggiechik, compasionategirl is passionate as well as compassionate. She is dedicated and persistent and has lots of really good information. She is supportive and, most importantly, never misses a chance to encourage others to do their part, because "the animals need us so much." I think you'll like it here.

I know you were jokin, that is why i put the wink emoticon to convey that I know you were jokin and that i too was kidding back.

Sometimes, I like to give you guys a hrd time by "twsiting your words" but always with good spirit and in a joiking way. Just ask Kollision - I gave him a hard time on my B-day thread just to kid around and make him sweat a lil. But he knows that i know that he was just jokin!

Thank you all for the welcome!
I love Dr. McDougall books, I have read quite a few of them. I am mostly vegan, but first I have to start controlling my IBS. I am working on that right now and for the most part it is a vegan diet with specific foods that cures it. I will check out that site again though and refresh. it has been a year or two since I read his books.

Everyone seems great here, I am so glad to be joining a wonderful group like this. So refreshing to see others like me!

I have been certified for 2 years, did it on my own when I hurt my shoulder. I wanted to know how I could improve. I don't have a client base yet, but in the future I would love to do it professionally. For now I am working at a desk job (I take breaks to climb the stairs and walk, I am an addict! ). I work a desk job so I can have constant flow of money, but once I can go out on my own and get my own business going, I plan too!

Anyway, thanks for the welcome all, I look forward to participating more!